Kids Will Be Kids
by addicted2airwolf
Summary: Story Twelve. Archangel attempts to find out what he's missed and Nikita and Le go on an adventure.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

"Why is it I'm being debriefed again?" Hawke asked in a none too friendly tone. "And why does it have to be this early in the morning? I like getting up to watch the sunrise as much as the next guy, but if you remember, it takes me an hour to fly here."

"Debriefing is standard protocol, the last stage of any mission," Archangel answered, "you know that."

"A part you've never been very particular in enforcing for the Airwolf team. Besides, why am _I _the only one here?"

"You said Dominic and Caitlin weren't involved."

"They weren't. But Saint John and Lexa were."

"I thought Saint John wasn't flying, and... wait, Lexa? She's back in the country?"

A slight smirk crept across the other man's face. "This isn't a debriefing, this is you phishing for information. Where were you the whole time anyway? A little help would have been nice."

"I was in Washington DC, trying to figure out who was setting off bombs throughout the country and why. Please tell me it was Lexa." She was an efficient agent he would hate to lose, but also quite a force to be reckoned with, and if at all possible he'd like her to remain on his side.

"I take it she hasn't sent you the hospital bill yet."

Archangel looked even more confused. He really was out of the loop on this one, a fact that seemed to be amusing his visitor greatly.

"No, it wasn't Lexa. She was evidently the only one who knew where the bombings were going to occur. A little bad luck and her reckless driving caught up with her though, and she played leapfrog on the middle of the interstate. After a few days in a coma, she came out and remember enough for us to go after the baddies since she wasn't in any condition to do it herself.

"How is she now?"

"Her motorcycle was totaled; she's peeved about that, and her first hospital escape failed, that tells you something, but I'm sure she'll be up to her usual no good before long. You just might not want to assign her anything that requires a lot of arm strength for a while. She's reinjured her wrist yet again since she won't let it heal before taking a header over the cars in front of her, and on the other side she has a cast all the way from shoulder to fingers. If it's any consolation though, last time I saw her, she'd already figured out how to get out of the bed restraints, so I'm sure she'll be back as soon as she figures out how to get here."

\A/

"Santini Air," Saint John answered the phone.

"Hey, it's Lexa. Can Stringfellow come out to play?"

"No, he had a meeting with Michael at Knightsbridge."

"Must be debriefing time, yuck. Anyway, could you do me a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"I ordered a new motorcycle since my last one was totaled and I was supposed to pick it up today, but it's a little difficult to ride with a shoulder cast, I haven't found a ride back to Los Angeles yet. I was hoping you could pick it up and drop it off at my place?"

"I guess I could do that."

"Great. It's supposed to be at Del Amo's, already paid for, and my apartment is about a block from Knightsbride, number 113."

"Okay, I'll get that done."

"Thanks, and I should be back soon. The bus was going to take three times longer than it should to get back there, so I'm probably just going to higher a puddle jumper flight back. See you soon."

Saint John hung up the phone and decided to go then. No one had come in all morning, and String should show up any time. No point in waiting for String to come in and rant about how he shouldn't be allowed to drive and how she was going to get herself and probably someone else killed with her recklessness.

In all truthfulness, he was a little curious. He was afraid to fly because he didn't trust his own judgment and ability anymore. How could she nearly get herself killed and then two weeks later go back to the very things that almost killed her?

Perhaps today he would find out.

Forty five minutes late, Saint John reached the dealership. Walking inside, he explained his reasoning for being there and with a surprising amount of ease completed the deal.

"Lexa called not too long ago saying you'd be by, said she'd been in an accident or something and wasn't able to to pick it up herself," the manager said, handing him the key. "It sitting out front waiting for you. Be careful though, there's a lot of power behind that thing, and tell Lexa we hope she gets better soon."

Dumbfounded, Saint John agreed, thinking that had to be the strangest visit to a dealership he had ever made. Everyone had been unusually helpful and nice, caring; it made him wonder what kind of business Lexa had done with them in the past, that or how much the new motorcycle has really cost...

It started with a gentle yet powerful purr, and he found himself immediately drawn in, wanting to see what it could do despite the fact it had been a while since he had even ridden a motorcycle, and never one of the power he knew this one held.

Despite the urge to go racing through the streets as fast as possible, he contained himself, instead taking a slightly longer and more scenic route toward Knightsbridge and Lexa's apartment.

After taking a nice ride and touring Thousand Oaks, Saint John arrived at Lexa's place, thinking that his first vehicle of his own since returning to the states might have to be a motorcycle, even if he couldn't afford the beauty Lexa had recently acquired.

He pulled into the parking space nearest unit 113 and was trying to decide what to do with the key when he hear someone approach fro behind.

Climbing out of the departing car, Lexa greeted him, cheerful as ever, and despite the two casts looking impeccably dressed.

"Glad I could catch you. I got a ride back with an old friend. I wanted to thank you for picking that up for me. I expect they treated you well?"

"Very well," he confirmed.

"Before you have to leave, do you want to grab lunch?" she offered. "I'll buy, and I know this great little place within walking distance."

"How can I say no to a question like that?"

"I was hoping you'd say yes. Come on."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

"So you, like, live out here?" Nikita asked, taking in the array of beautiful scenery. "It's really nice," she continued, standing up in the small boat.

"You might wanna sit," Le cautioned, "it's really easy to tip over, and the lake's cold."

"That's okay," Nikita answered mischievously. "Hey, have you ever been rock climbing? I've been wanting to, and I probably won't be here much longer."

"The mountains are pretty far away even though they don't look like it."

"They can't be that far," she disagreed, sliding off her sandals. "We can go tonight after dinner. I'll go get ready now." Her decision made, with or without Le's approval, she dove overboard, rocking the boat as she did so, and resurfaced several yards ahead. "See you back at the cabin," she yelled before disappearing beneath the water again.

\A/

"Le," a voice whispered in the darkness. "Le, come on."

Nikita, with a backpack and hiking boots sat at his feet.

"Are you coming or not?"

"What? It's the middle of the night."

"We're gong climbing, remember? Come on, Le, or I'm leaving without you."

"Fine," he agreed although not entirely sure it was a good idea. If Nikita got hurt or lost, no one would know where she was, and probably no one would think to go all the way out to mountains. If for no other reason, he had to go to keep her safe. It did sound like fun though anyway, so he had nothing to loose, right?

He picked up his boots and followed Nikita out the door.

"Bout time you got out here, come on, we've got a long way to go."

He followed Nikita through the winding pine straw covered trails toward the mountains as minutes turned into hours. Eventually they reached the tall rock wall of the mountain.

"How far you wanna go?"Niki asked, looking for a good place to stop. "I wish we could climb the whole think, but someone will probably come looking for us before then."

"How about that ledge up there?" Le suggested. The area he pointed to looked large enough the two of them could sit and eat an early breakfast after climbing for a while, watch the sunrise, and they could be back at the cabin in time for lunch.

"Looks good enough to me," Niki agreed, pulling a pair of gloves from her backpack.

"You brought rope, right?"

"What do you need rope for? I'm free climbing."

"Oh. Sounds great," Le murmured, thinking maybe a little too much of Lexa's daredevil I-can-do-anything attitude had rubbed off on her half sister.

\A/

"So how did yesterday go?"String asked, acting as if he knew more than he was letting on.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm guess Lexa's back – Dom said you left yesterday to pick up a motorcycle and disappeared for a couple hours."

"Oh yeah. We had lunch too."

"How is she?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Fine I guess, given the circumstances," Saint John replied casually, wondering why the topic of Lexa, usually the last person he wanted to talk about, had suddenly come up.

"And Nikita? I"m guessing you dropped her off too, she's always up before now."

"No, actually, I didn't. String?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you asking me if I'm dating Lexa?"

"Why would I be-"

"Because you never ask about her."

"No, I already told, if that's what you want, go for it, just no without a flak jacket."

"I"m not. We had lunch, that it. When she called, she asked for you first anyway. I'm not going to steal your girlfriend."

"My girlfriend? There's nothing like that between Lexa and I. If there was, and I'm not saying there was, it was over years ago."

"If you say so."

"I don't know why you would even think that."

"I'm just telling you what I see. I don't think you can make up your mind between her and Cait, and because that stupid curse idea you're going to push both of them away. The thing is, Lexa does subtle even worse than you."

"What is this, high school? What's with the sudden interest in my love life or lack thereof?"

"Nothing. I'm just saying, if you like Cait, you need to call her; she isn't going to wait forever. And if you really don't want to wake up and find yourself married to Lexa, think before you jump. I'm not saying you shouldn't help when she needs it, but you almost went to jail because of her, you take on missions because of her, and she's already asked you once to adopt Nikita."

"And I told her I didn't think it was a good idea."

"Yet Nikita's staying here."


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

It was just after six thirty when Le scrambled up over the edge to join Nikita who had arrived only minutes earlier, but already almost finished setting out their simple breakfast.

"I've got hot tea and muffins," she announced, finishing by pulling out t wo tea bags and dropping them into the cups of hot water she had poured from the thermos, "and we're just in time for the sunrise."

The grey sky was beginning to give way to a soft orange glow, and pink already streaked through the sky. They really weren't _that _ far from the cabin, but the sunrise appeared totally different from here. Above most of the trees, they could clearly see as the sun peaked over the horizon from this breathtaking new angle.

"It's really nice," Le commented. "I don't think I could get up in the middle of the night for this every day, but I would do it again some time."

Nikita simply smiled and sipped her tea. "I would too. We don't have a view anything like this in the city."

In the city- Le had nearly forgotten she had to go back soon. It had been nice having someone closer to his age around at the cabin, even though she had a tendency to drag him into crazy things like this.

The sun continued to rise higher, its warmth chasing away the crisp night air, and he knew it was going to be a warm day even though it was mid-November.

"I guess we should start heading back," he suggested. As much as he didn't want to, they still had a long trek back, and before lone people would be wondering where they had gone.

\A/

"Hand me the spatula, will you?"

Saint John did so, catching a whiff of the warm bread. "Where'd you learn to be such a good cook anyway? I can't get you to touch a steak, but it can't be because you can't cook it. Everything is always so good."

"I have a few dishes I've worked on," String conceded, "but it's nothing too fancy."

"I don't know; nothing that I make is that good," Saint John answered, pulling out a stack of plates for the French toast. "You don't give yourself enough credit." Saint John set glasses and juice on the table and turned back to his brother. "Anything else I can do?"

"Call Nikita and Le. If we don't hurry up, it won't matter how good the food is, we won't have time to eat it."

\A/

Climbing back down from their breakfast ledge was surprisingly more difficult than expected, but now both Le and Nikita were nearing the end with less than twenty five feet to go.

Feeling for a new handhold, Le felt several small rocks and dirt hit his hand, sliding down from where Nikita was just a few feet above.

"Careful, Niki," he called up, but it was already too late.

Nikita lost her grip and rock crumbled beneath her, leaving her nothing to hold onto and sending her slipping and tumbling toward the ground. Le stuck out his hand, hoping to catcher her. She reached out for him, but missed, still knocking him off balance, and nearly causing him to join her fall.

"Nikita," Le called out, realizing she wasn't able to stop her decent. She hit the ground below hard what seemed like an eternity later, while in reality he knew the whole thing had happened in a matter of seconds. Nikita still gave no answer. Nonetheless, Le made his way down the mountainside as quickly as he dared. Sliding the last couple of feet, he reached the bottome and knelt down beside Nikita.

At first, she made no movement, making him fear the worst, but after a few minutes, she regained consciousness, although remained somewhat dazed and disoriented.

"Where..." she raised a shaky hand to her forehead; it came away sticky and covered in dirt and blood. "Did I fall from-" she didn't indicate any particular direction, but it was clear enough.

"Yeah, you did," he answered, more anxious to figure out what they were going to do than establish what had just happened.

A delayed grimace of pain showed on her face and tears welled up in her eyes, but she managed to choke back all but a muffled sob.

"What's wrong?" Le queried, trying to find out what he could do without hurting her any further.

"I can't move my leg," she whimpered.

There wasn't anything outwardly wrong with it, thankfully, so for now Le decided to assume it was broken but now a compound fracture. That did mean they needed a way to splint it and keep pressure off of it to avoid making the injury worse.

"It's probably broken" Le answered, hoping his facade of knowing what he was doing and having a plan would be comforting and help put her at ease. "Here," he said, sliding the now battered backpack toward her. "Find the sheet we ate on, and try to ct it off into long strips. I'm going to see if I can find a couple sticks to make a splint."

In the woods it didn't take long to find a suitable pair of branches. Before long, Le returned to Nikita just as she was finishing the last strip of the sheet. He positioned the thick limbs on either side of her injured leg and secured the make-shift brace as well as he could, then used the remaining strips to wrap around some of the worst cuts and scrapes as bandages.

With his limited medical supplied and knowledge, he had done all he could, but Nikita still didn't think she could walk on the injured limb, certainly not for a several hour hike, and still appeared to be in a lot of pain. He could leave her and go on his own for help, but if anything were to happen, Niki would be left on her own out in the open, and he didn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

"We better be on our way," Le announced, knowing it could easily take twice as long as their hurried trip had earlier that morning.

After several minutes of finagling and more than one ungraceful attempt, he got Nikita on his back and started the long trip back home.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

Both Hawkes finished their breakfast, expecting the kids to show up any time, but neither did even as it neared time to leave for the hangar. If they were just out playing, he had no problem leaving them, but Le hadn't taken the hand held radio he was supposed to when he was going to be gone long. Having gotten into a fair amount of trouble on their own when they were younger, neither String nor Saint John wanted to leave without some idea of their whereabouts.

Decision made, Hawke radioed Santini Air to let Dominic know he and Saint John would be late, and they began they hunt for the missing kids.

"They can't have gotten too far," Saint John said aloud, but after looking for an hour and covering all the area they knew Le liked to frequent, they were still no closer to finding Le or Nikita.

"I'm starting to get worried. Neither one of us has seen them all morning, so they've been gone since at least seven in the morning. That was five hours ago."

"I know," String agreed. "I think it's about time we take up the helicopter and see if we can spot them from the air."

"Sounds good," Saint John agreed. Finding them from the air could prove difficult, especially with all the tree cover, but at least them could cover the ground faster.

Within minutes they were in the air and covering the expanse around the cabin. Saint John sat in the co-pilot's seat searching the ground below for any sign of the two, but String's low level flight was limited by the height of the pine trees, and it was difficult to focus on a singular object as they flew by. A couple times he thought he might have spotted them, but after circling around each time he determined it wasn't them or couldn't relocate his original point of reference.

"You don't think they would have taken the skiff out, do you?"

"I didn't notice if it was still tied to the dock or nnot," String answered, immediately sending them in that direction and demanding of himself why that hadn't been his first thought. The water on the lake wasn't that rough, but it would be cold, and he knew from personal experience how quickly things could go wrong on the water.

Thankfully, as he rounded closed in on the cabin, he could see the skiff was still secure at the dock.

"I'm going to circle over the lake again just to make sure, but then I"m going to set down on the dock again," he told his brother, "the stick seems a bit loose to me."

Saint John nodded his approval of the plan and continued to search the shore line for any signs of the children until his brother's command ripped him away.

"Sinj, take the stick."

"String, not now. I-"

"Yes now – I lost control!"

Abruptly the mushy feeling they cyclic had been giving him had gone completely and without Saint John's intervention, they would be the ones ditching in the middle of the lake.

Left with no other choice, Saint John took the controls and leveled out their flight.

"I need you to land on the dock or in the clearing next to the cabin," his brother requested.

"String, I haven't flown in years and neither place has much room for error. I'll either dump us in the drink of send a tree through the windscreen."

"We don't have much of a choice, Sinj. The control is out on this side and I can't switch seats with you midflight."

"This isn't how I wanted to be reintroduced to flying."

"I know, but you can do it, Saint John. You've done it hundreds of times before."

_Not nearly as many as the probably thousands of times String had, _Saint John thought breifly, but he tried to shove the thought aside. String was right. There wasn't any choice and without knowing why he lost control on the pilot's side, he needed to get down before they potentially faced the same thing on the co-pilot's side.

He brought the helicopter in slowly above the clearing near the cabin and pulled slightly on the collective.

"Watch the trees to the left," String cautioned.

"I know," Saint John replied a calmly as possible. Shifting over to avoid the low branches, he continued the decent and landed with a gentle thump.

"You did it."

"Yeah." Saint John let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "I still think you should come out here with a chain saw and get rid of a few of these trees, but we're here, and without any branches through the window."

"You did well," String said seriously before sliding out.

\A/

Even after yet another stop to rest, Le was worn out with quite a ways to go. It was approaching one o'clock, but they didn't have any lunch to stop and eat since they had only planned on being gone for breakfast.

Next time, he thought to himself, he was packing the backpack. Nikita had saved them a lot of weight with her minimalistic packing, but if they had the proper climbing hear, she probably wouldn't have ever gotten hurt in the first place. Even if she had, he would have brought a first aid kit and radio so they could get in touch with help if they needed it. She probably never thought about needing it though. He never would have had it not been for the camping trip he took with String in the summer. At the time it had seemed like an excessive amount to carry for a couple days, but now he understood the necessity of carrying more than the bare essentials. Sometimes something unimportant became very important.

On his back again, Nikita draped over his shoulder half asleep. Despite not having walked since early that morning, she seemed exhausted. Even so, he made sure to wake her at least a couple time an hour for fear she had gained a concussion on addition to her leg injury from her tumble. With any luck, they would be back to the cabin in about half an hour. He just hoped the weather would hold out that long. Most the morning it had been pleasantly warm and sunny, but as it moved further into the afternoon, the temperature had dropped and clouds had begun gathering overhead. The last ting they needed was to be cold and muddy after all this.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

"Should be fixed now," String announced, replacing the toolbox in the back.

"Should be?" Saint John questioned. "One emergency landing was enough for me today."

"Just some nuts and bolts that had worked themselves free, as far as I can tell."

"Great," Saint John replied, realizing he had gotten what he deserved. In a hurry to find Le and Nikita, he had been anxious to skip the pre-flight check – something simple that probably would have saved them the last hour's worth of events and crawling around the helicopter trying to find the problem and do a proper pre-flight check.

Ironically, he could have saved himself a lot of stress if he had just agreed to get back to flying like String had suggested so many times before. Thankfully, he remembered when it counted, but despite his trepidation, he realized String was right. If he was going to continue hanging around and working at Santini Air, he did need to know what he was doing, for all their sakes.

They had been back in the air less than ten minutes when Dom's voice came over the radio "You boys there?"

"Yeah, Dom, we're here," String answered, continuing his sweep over the area.

"Well why the heck aren't you here? You said you were going to be late, not taking the day off. You know it's almost three?"

"Sorry, Dom."

"Sorry Dom? I want a better explanation than that."

"Le and Nikita have been missing since this morning. We waited a while thinking they went for a hike or something, but they didn't take a radio, and we didn't want to leave without hearing from them."

"Oh. Should I call Lexa and head over there?"

"It might not be a bad idea. I'd like to have them back before dark and that's not so far away anymore."

"Alright, I'll be over as soon as I can, and let me know if you find anything."

\A/

The Santini Air helicopter flew overhead again, but this time Le didn't even try to get their attention. He had tried several times before and it hadn't worked. Now it was beginning to drizzle, and they were almost back to the cabin anyway.

Stumbling over a tree root in the path, Le inadvertently woke Nikita again.

"It's wet," she said, stating the obvious. Last time he stopped, Le had pulled up the hood on her jacket, but it only worked so well.

"Yeah, but we're almost back."

"I know, I can see it," she answered, more lucidly than any of their previous conversations. "I can't believe you carried me that whole way."

Le didn't reply. In a way, he was surprised he had managed it. He just knew he didn't want to leave her alone for hours while he went for help. With his concerns she might have a concussion, he was made even more sure of that choice.

At last, he reached the steps of the cabin, leaning on the stair rail heavily to keep his balance with Niki on his back. Soon they were inside and he took their wet jackets to be hung up and made some hot tea and sandwiches.

Both of them greedily gobbled the late lunch down before realizing no one else appeared to be home.

"Do you think they went up to the hangar without us?" Nikita asked, "because I think I was supposed to go home today."

"Maybe," Le answered, but he was pretty sure they hadn't. He knew he was supposed to take the handheld radio whenever he was going to be gone more than an hour, but since Nikita had packed the bag, he never thought about it until it was needed. More than likely, he was going to be in a lot of trouble and the others had been looking for them. Remembering the helicopter he had seen several times earlier, he guessed they had been looking for quite a while.

"Let me see if I can reach them on the radio."

Almost instantly he received an answer. Saint John confirmed the message and said they were on the way back to the cabin.

Within ten minutes Saint John and String were back at the cabin with Dom and Lexa no far behind.

"What do you think you were doing? You can't just run off all day without letting anyone know you're leaving. We were all worried."

"And what did you do to yourself?" Lexa asked, referring to the half-covered injury String had overlooked as he moved into protective parenting mode.

Realizing the oversight, String pulled back the blanket that partially covered Nikita's injured leg. "What did happen?"

"I fell," Nikita answered succinctly.

"Care to share any other details?" Saint John queried, joining the conversation.

"I fell off a rock," Nikita answered.

"And how big was this rock?"

"I don't know, pretty big. I probably fell about twenty feet."

"And I see you planned very well for this little excursion," Lexa rebutted sarcastically, "you didn't even take a first aid kit or radio. What's it going to take for you to realize things don't always go like they're supposed to? You have to plan for that."

"Oh, like you do?" Nikita shot back. "You can't even let your wrist heal before you're on to the next thing. I've seen the way you come home all shot up and broken then act like nothing happened. How is this any different? I'm fine now, isn't that what matters?"

"It's part of the job."

"And what kind of job do you expect I'll one day have? What else have you taught me is normal?"

A brief frustrated glance beside her gave away this wasn't exactly the argument Lexa wanted to be having in front of everyone at the moment, but here it was nonetheless.

"What is it you want me to do? Take you to the doctor to check your leg, pack your lunch and take you to school tomorrow? To tell you it's okay, that everything's alright and I'll be home by dinner every night like a good 'normal' mom?"

"No."

"No what?"

"That's not what I want. I know you aren't a 'normal' mom, you aren't even my mom. I don't expect you to act like someone you're not. I just want to have some fun too. Hanging out with Le has been the first time I've gotten to hang out with someone close to my age without being afraid that next week we'd be somewhere else with other people. I don't want you to chance – I want the exact opposite – I want everything to stay the same."


End file.
